Chapter 7
Draco felt sick.
And stupid.
And angry.
With himself. With her. With his mother. How could his mother allow Vanessa to put herself in danger? How could Vanessa come here to perform some crazy ritual? He needed answers and he did not care whether she was "allowed" to give them.
He found her in the common room. She was curled up on the couch asleep with one hand under her cheek. She looked so young and vulnerable. For the first time he noticed dark circles under her eyes. How long had it been since she had a decent night's sleep? Or ate properly? He scooped her up to take her to his private room. Perks of being a legacy Malfoy. Private Malfoy quarters. All the Sacred 28 houses had them at one point or another. Most had given them up, but not the Malfoys.
"Draco?" She sounded sleepy and confused.
"Quiet, Vanessa. You need sleep and food. And if you are too stupid to take care of yourself I am bloody well going to do it for you. That is what friends do."
"The stairs won't let you into my dorm room."
"That is why we aren't going to your dorm room."
"Oh. OK." She fell back against his chest and went back to sleep. She must really be exhausted, he thought not to argue with him at all. His heart skipped a beat when her hand curled into his robe laying itself directly against said beating organ.
He laid her on his bed and pulled off her shoes and robe finally stripping her down to her bras and panties and pulling one of his sweatshirts over her before finally deciding to remove her bras as well so she could sleep better and tucking her under the covers. She never once protested.
As he smoothed her hair back she whispered "I love you Draco. There isn't anyone else. There never has been."
He kissed her forehead "I know, baby, I know, go to sleep now."
He curled up next to her and pulled her close pressing her back to his chest. Friendship be damned.
In her sleep Vanessa had the same dream. Only it wasn't really a dream, she knew that now. The same one from when she was a little girl. When the strange voice would speak to her. It was the voice of the Horned Serpent.
"It is almost time for you to make the potion Vanessa. You have everything you need." It spoke to her in the pretty speak that made others so afraid of her. The beautiful speech of snakes. Only some members of her family had it. Not very many. Her ancestor had been a squib and it was thought the gift would die but it hadn't. Not all of her children were squibs. Many had grown into full witches and wizards. And some had kept the parseltongue. But only one in a generation and of those only one in every 5 generations could speak to dragons. Vanessa was special. "Yes Hobbomock I have what I need… but it is still incomplete, there are things that must be placed in at the last moment… I do not have those things, they are unique to the ritual, and I do not know where to get them. I must know who the ritual is for in order to collect them." She heard the long soothing syllabant hiss that almost always lured her to complacency "They will be supplied child of serpents… and then our hated enemies will know fear and death." This last part was said with such animosity that Vanessa was left shaking and terrified, reminded that dragons were not to be trifled with.
Draco shook her to wake her from her night terror. He knew that she was speaking parseltongue, but he did not need to understand her to know that whatever had her in its grips had shaken her to her core.
"Vanessa, wake up" he shook her gently; repeating her name until she finally recognized him and collapsed sobbing against his chest. "Do you want to talk about it?" he ask quietly.
"No Hobbomock forbids it. Just stay with me." She pleaded.
Draco wrapped his legs around her gentling her until she calmed down. After a time he could not help but notice how warm and smooth she felt against him. He slowly started trailing his fingers up and down her thighs.
She looked up at him wide eyed "Draco…"
He silenced her with a kiss.
After a bit she pulled away "You know I can't…" he smiled down at her "Then we won't… but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of other things we can do."
As it turned out he was right.
Vanessa stretched. She had the best dreams the night before. In dreams you could tell people anything and it didn't count. In her dreams Draco had been there to take care of her. To make her feel safe. She was allowed to tell him there was no mystery guy. That he was the only one she had ever loved. And he had believed her. She was allowed to do anything she wanted in her dreams. She smiled softly at all the things she had wanted to do in her dreams. But dreams don't last and today she had to get up and face another day of Pansy and her smugness and Draco and his anger and she would… as soon as this weight was off of her. This actual literal weight pinning her to her bed.
She opened one eye slowly. This looked nothing like her bed. For one thing she should be looking straight across at Daphne not at a heavy black and green curtain. And her bed did not have someone else's arm in it. Well, once when Lydia had a nightmare… but Lydia's arm looked nothing like this arm, and it had certainly not had a hand attached that had been cupping one of her breasts. It did feel nice, but whose arm and hand were they? Not big enough to be Ivan's. Blaise valued his life too much. That only left one person. Confirmed when the arm dragged her closer and the owner whispered in her ear "Good morning beautiful."
She turned around in his arms and let him kiss her. She whispered "I thought last night was a dream" he smiled at her confusion. "That is not particularly flattering to me Vanny."
"How did I get here in your bed Draco? How did I get undressed and in to your shirt?"
"I carried you up here, I undressed you and I put my shirt on you" he stated, rather matter of factly. He stood up as she began to protest and moved the tray the elves had brought up closer to them, tea coddled eggs and toast, as she opened her mouth to say something he was certain he would not like he popped a bit of toast in it.
"When was the last time you ate Vanessa?"
Forced to swallow the toast or choke she sputter "What are you…."
He spooned some of the egg between her protesting lips "Do you even remember?"
"That is hardly any of your…!"
He handed the tea mug to her and glared until she took a drink.
"You aren't leaving until you have eaten all of this and arguing is not going to change my mind."
She glared at him, but did as she was told for once and ate her breakfast.
When she was done he leaned back against his headboard and pulled her protesting against him tucking her head under his chin and waiting patiently for her to stop struggling.
Finally she did, "What are you doing Draco"
"I am taking care of you since you seem determined to land yourself into an early grave from exhaustion. I don't like those dark circles under your eyes, you need sleep, and I am going to make sure you get it." He had not realized how hard that was going to be with her bare legs against him and the sweat shirt riding up showing off her midriff, but he gritted his teeth, this was about taking care of her needs, not his.
"I can't stay in bed all day Draco, especially not YOUR bed."
"Yes you can, it's the weekend, no classes."
"That isn't what I meant."
"It is what you need, and when you wake up you are going to tell me about this devil's deal you made with my mother."
Vanessa drew in a sharp breath "No, I am not. All you need to know is your mother loves you. There is very little she would not do for you."
"Vanessa, I know you think you know what you are getting in to, but my parents… some of their associates are…"
Vanessa sat up and looked at him sadly "You said you were listening that day, I thought you understood… about my family… Draco, it wasn't I who made the devil's bargain… it was your mother; don't you know who Isolt Sayer is?"
He shook his head, he had meant to look into it but things had got in the way, mostly his anger and pride "No, not really, she founded Ilvermorny…"
"Draco, Sayers… the family line, they are directly descended from ..." she paused and looked at him uncertainly "Salazar Slytherin"
He hissed threw his teeth, though sure for a moment she was going to say something else, this was serious "That is why you are a parseltongue."
She nodded "I can speak to dragons as well, but that is a rare adaptation, it is why I chose Horned Serpent."
He laughed "Chose? You get to choose your House in Ilvermorny?"
She looked at him puzzled "Of course, if more than one house wants you or you are suited to more than one house, just like I chose to be in Slytherin here, In Ilvermorny Wampus and Horned Serpent wanted me I chose Horned Serpent, here that hat wanted me in Gryffindor, I argued with it until I got my way and it put me in Slytherin."
He looked at her doubtfully, "You can't bully the hat Vanessa, and it puts you where it wants to, not where you decide."
She raised her eyebrows indignantly "Morrigan's ass, Draco, I did NOT bully your sacred hat, I just told it that no matter where it put me I was living down here in the dungeons anyway so it would be less scandalous if it put me here to start with. It asked me how I intended to do that and I listed off any number of efficacious potions for disguising ones nature and it decided I had a Slytherin temperament after all. No bullying required."
Deciding to let the matter of her bullying a centuries old magical artifact go for the moment "So YOU are the Heir of Slytherin?"
"Merlin NO! I heard all about that and I am not going to start letting ancient horrors loose. Technically I am probably one of his last living descendants but not in the way you mean."
"Still, no matter what my mother agreed to with you Vanessa, you are hardly the devil, but your lineage is still a problem. Others will see it as a bargaining chip or a threat, Vanessa; this could be dangerous to you."
"They have agreed to let me remain neutral, but it did come at a cost."
"THEY?! Who are they Vanessa?"
She looked at him sadly, "You know who they are Draco, on both sides."
He looked her stunned "Death Eaters and The Order that is who you are talking about isn't it."
She nodded "Yes, as long as I… perform the function they have required of me I am allowed to complete my ritual in peace. I will not be forced to choose sides in this war. As a minor my father made the decision about who my sponsors would be here, he chose your parents. He wanted to cement a business deal. I would have left your mother out of it had I been given a choice."
"Out of what?! What has she done, what has she agreed to?"
"Her fate is now bound to… this ritual. If I am successful she will survive no matter what."
"And if you are not she dies." It was not a question.
"That is one… possibility… one I never wanted Draco. It was just supposed to be me taking... involved with this ritual."
Taking all the risks you mean he thought, but didn't voice this out loud.
"So when I don't sleep, when I forget to eat, when I am willing to test a new poison on the only test subject available to me… there is a lot riding on those decisions."
She swung her legs over the side of the bed, swaying slightly as she did so.
"Hey" he said softly "where are you going?"
She hung her head "Sun's coming up and I have a lot of homework to catch up on."
"No, you have to lie back down and sleep just like I said; you can't keep doing this to yourself." With that he dragged her gently back to his side and tucked the covers around her. It was a testament to her exhaustion more than his charm that she did not protest.
She was asleep on his chest in minutes. They stayed there all day he only allowed her up to shower and eat.
